Hepeng Jia/Beijing, China 

China has launched a new scheme that it hopes will attract top academics and industrial leaders of Chinese origin to return to the country.  

The Thousand-talent scheme, announced by the Chinese Communist Party in early January, is intended to tempt 2000 academics back to China in the next five to 10 years.

While 1.36 million Chinese have gone to study overseas in the past 30 years since the end of the cultural revolution, only 370,000 have returned. More than 80 per cent of the members of the Chinese academies of sciences (CAS) and engineering (CAE) have experience of studying overseas. 

However, Wu Yishan from the Institute of Science and Technology Information of China (ISTIC) found that of the 6097 most highly cited science and technology papers authored worldwide between 1997 and 2006, only four are from China-based researchers, while 4016 are by academics in the US. 

Wu further analysed the place of birth of the 2350 US-based authors for whom the data are available, and found 46 of them were born in China. 'The figures show that in the US alone, the number of Chinese-born top talents is 11.5 times higher then the number based in China,' Wu says.

Leveling the playing field 

According to an article published last year in Guangming Daily  by Rao Yi, dean of the life science college at Peking University, and Shi Yigong, a professor of life science at Tsinghua University, the average academic level of a full professor in their field is only equivalent to an assistant professor in a world's leading universities. 

Before returning to China, Rao and Shi were tenured professors at Northwestern and Princeton universities, respectively.

According to Gao Song, a leading chemist at Peking University, publication records reveal that the gap between chemists in China and the developed countries is not as big as in life sciences - a discipline that is rapidly changing in the developed world. 

'But we still lack leading chemists who can initiate original research areas,' Gao told Chemistry World. 

Chemistry matters 

Wang Hongfei, a senior researcher at the CAS Institute of Chemistry, says that the link between academia and industry in China is very weak, so that scientists find it difficult to develop new fields of study based on the demands of industry. 

Meanwhile, attempts at cross-disciplinary research, especially with biology, are few. 'The return of top [chemistry] talents could help improve the situation,' adds Wang. 

In order to tempt scientists back to China, it is believed that the government could offer returning academics an allowance of up to 1 million yuan (US$147,059), plus good research conditions and other benefits such as housing and better schooling for their children.

As many top talents have foreign citizenship, the government says it will offer permanent residency to the returnees.

A source involved in the policymaking process reveals that to qualify for the scheme, academics should have tenured professor status - and they will be given the honour of State Professor. But he adds that the salary is not a fixed figure, and will be decided based on their current foreign wage. 

Challenges remain 

While the scheme has largely been welcomed, some Chinese scientists have protested that it is unfair to local researchers, whose average salaries are between 50,000 yuan and 150,000 yuan per year.  

But Gao is more optimistic. He believes that while the scheme will generally promote academic progress, the Thousand-talent salary - equivalent to international standards - could help improve the overall pay levels among Chinese scientists. 

However, questions remain over whether the scheme will really attract people to stay permanently.

Under previous schemes, such as Hundred-talent scheme by CAS, and the Cheung-kong scholar programme by the education ministry - which give full-time returnees up to 150,000 yuan annual allowance and about 2 million yuan research funding - some returnees enjoyed the benefits as sabbatical leave, before returning to their foreign institutions. 

A further concern is that powerful officials would abuse the scheme to favour their friends, rather than selecting those with true academic merits. 'The scheme could also trigger a battle between institutions for top academics, advantaging those close to policymakers and worsening the imbalance between academic institutions,' says one scientist, who asked not to be named.

On the other hand, negative perceptions of the Chinese academic environment could discourage overseas Chinese scientists from returning to China, according to Yin Xi, an assistant professor of physics at Harvard University, US.

Chen Yiyu, head of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, agrees that improving the academic atmosphere is crucial. 'Even the best talent cannot play their part without the right environment.'